Marine Coatings: APC Reports Maritime Sales Up 40% in '21

Advanced Polymer Coatings (APC), the owner of the MarineLINE cargo tank coating brand, announced its most successful year of trading with maritime sales growing by 40% in 2021.

By it's own reckoning the Ohio-headquartered company says it accounts for more than 12% of the global cargo tank coating market, specified on more than 700 ships, with 56 ships coated equating to over 750,000 sq. m. of MarineLINE applied in 2021.

Growth is being driven by a rapidly changing shipping landscape, said Advanced Polymer Coatings President David Keehan, noting that decarbonization is exerting pressure on operators and charterers, who are searching for products to help achieve emission targets. 

Keehan said MarineLINE’s ability to cut average tank cleaning times by two days per voyage, compared to standard coatings, led to a three per cent annual fuel reduction cutting carbon emissions by 4500 MT per annum per tanker as well as significant fuel savings.

“We are seeing more changes in the tank coating market than any point in the last ten years,” Keehan said. “We specialize solely on tank coatings. We are not a generalist paint company attempting to coat the entire ship. That model is becoming less appealing as operators are now much more aware that when tank coatings go wrong it can cost millions of dollars per ship to repair plus disruption and lack of availability."

"Another trend we are observing is that charterers are influencing the selection of tank coatings, and they are hungry for cost and emissions savings,"  Keehan said. "The charterers want to secure long-term deals with ship owners. They want to know the coating can perform and cope with a wide variety of chemicals over a sustained period without risk of cross contamination. When you consider that a ship can be expected to carry 85 different chemicals a year across 16 cargo tanks this is one of the biggest issues and costs an operator can face.”